manual/include/configuring-midi.html

<p>
  <dfn><abbr title="Musical Instrument Digital Interface">MIDI</abbr></dfn> is
  a way to describe musical performances and to control music hardware and
  software.
</p>

<p>
  Ardour can import and record MIDI data, and perform a variety of editing
  operations on it. Furthermore, MIDI can be used to control various functions
  of Ardour.
</p>

<h2>MIDI Handling Frameworks</h2>

<p>
  MIDI input and output for Ardour are handled by the same "engine" that
  handles audio input and output.
</p>

<table class="dl">
  <tr><th>OS X</th>
  <td><dfn>CoreMIDI</dfn> is the standard MIDI framework on OSX systems.</td></tr>
  <tr><th>Linux</th>
  <td><dfn><abbr title="Advanced Linux Sound API">ALSA</abbr> MIDI</dfn> is the
  standard MIDI framework on Linux systems.</td></tr>
  <tr><th>Windows</th>
  <td>There is no single standard MIDI framework on Windows, but Ardour
  can work with ASIO and others.</td></tr>
</table>

<p class="note">
  On Linux systems, <dfn>QJackCtl</dfn> control software displays ALSA MIDI
  ports under its "ALSA" tab (it does not currently display CoreMIDI ports).
  By contrast, JACK MIDI ports show up under the <kbd class="menu">MIDI</kbd>
  tab in QJackCtl.
</p>

<h2>JACK MIDI Configuration</h2>

<p>
  By default, JACK will <strong>not</strong> automatically detect and use existing MIDI ports. One of several ways of <dfn>bridging</dfn> between the native MIDI frameworks (e.g. CoreMIDI or ALSA) and JACK MIDI must be chosen, as described in the following sections.
</p>